Bert Stratton

Tennis, like marriage, starts at love-love, and it goes from there, writes guest columnist Bert Stratton, a frequent contributor to The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com, who lives in Cleveland Heights and writes the blog, “Klezmer Guy: Real Music & Real Estate.”

A landlord contends with ‘emotional-support animals.’

In business, a change of mind can yield big rewards.

Cleveland Heights’ new mayor, Jim Petras, said at the recent Cleveland Heights City Council meeting that the deal to eliminate Horseshoe Lake was made before his time. That’s not a good excuse, Mr. Mayor. The cities of Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights can rectify this monumental mess, writes guest columnist Bert Stratton.

At a certain age, you come to appreciate all the medical maintenance that goes into staying alive.

Etty Hoffman’s 100th birthday celebration was at Park Synagogue in Pepper Pike. Her sister is 103. I wonder how many relatives at Ms. Hoffman’s party think they’ve inherited the family’s longevity gene. They’ll find out, I guess. Dick Van Dyke turns 100 on Saturday; Mary Tyler Moore died at 80. Keep that in mind. Happy birthday to Dick Van Dyke, Etty Hoffman, and everybody trying to emulate them, writes guest columnist Bert Stratton.

More bad vibrations? I gave my tenant Al, an Iraqi refugee, half off his rent after plaster fell on his barber's chair. Settling -- money and plaster; that’s part of my job, writes Bert Stratton in a guest column today.

My synagogue’s delightful wedding-anniversary tradition.

Maury Feren, Cleveland's late produce king, has 5.3 linear feet of archive boxes at the Western Reserve Historical Society. My klezmer band, Yiddishe Cup, has 1.4 linear feet and counting. Maybe I’ll pay a slotting fee and gain a WRHS edge over the Maury Feren-types. What price immortality, asks Bert Stratton in a guest column today.

The sewer district proposes replacing the Horseshoe Lake and Lower Lake with “meandering streams,” banked with rip-rap stones. And maybe we’ll get some “playground amenities,” too, which the suburbs would have to kick in for. We’ve got plenty of playgrounds and streams nearby. We want our lakes. The people in the Heights are losing water, and they’re pissed, writes guest columnist Bert Stratton, a frequent contributor to The Plain Dealer, who writes from Cleveland Heights.

Bert Stratton’s klezmer band, Yiddishe Cup, plays a free Father’s Day concert at 7 p.m. tonight at the Alma Theater at Cain Park, 14591 Superior Road, in Cleveland Heights.

That letter was written 67 years ago. I confess, I smoked marijuana the following year and periodically after that. But not that much. I never bought, Mom! And I haven’t toked in decades, writes guest columnist Bert Stratton, a frequent contributor and author of the blog, “Klezmer Guy: Real Music & Real Estate.”

Maybe I’ll make somebody’s day at the IRS Center in Cincinnati this month. I try to make my tax returns interesting. Just not too interesting, writes guest columnist Bert Stratton, a frequent contributor from Cleveland Heights who writes the blog, “Klezmer Guy: Real Music & Real Estate.”

Even if you’re rich, you can’t always get what you want. For example, you can’t buy Horseshoe Lake, which straddles Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights. An assortment of neighborhood high-rollers, medium-rollers and salt-of-the-earth ex-hippies…

Maybe a tenant will leave me a piano. But please, not a rotted-out 400-pound upright with worn-out strings, dampers, hammers and strings. I "inherited" that piano from a tenant in September. It cost me $500 to junk it, writes guest columnist Bert Stratton, a frequent contributor who writes the blog, “Klezmer Guy: Real Music & Real Estate.”

Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran have repeatedly said – and acted on – their desire to eliminate Israel -- the one Jewish state, home to half the Jews in the world. That's genocide. Update your dictionary, writes guest columnist Bert Stratton, a frequent contributor and author of the blog, “Klezmer Guy: Real Music & Real Estate.”

In this column, Bert Stratton reflects on the life of his long-time tenant, Bill, the struggles of affordable housing and the quiet dignity of low-income renters.

|Published: Jul. 24, 2024, 5:12 a.m. CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- I played music with a prodigy. I didn’t know he was a prodigy. He and I were in junior high. He played piano. I played clarinet. I just googled him -- William Goldenberg. He wound up at…

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- When I trounced my friend Jimmy in tennis, he blamed it on his racket. His racket -- his good racket -- was in the shop for restringing. Jimmy said he was hitting the ball longer than usual with his back-up racket, and he…

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- I’ve been hearing bad things about Zionism since at least 1975. That was the year I wore a sticker which read “I Am a Zionist.” I got the sticker at the El Al ticket counter at Ben Gurion Airport. The United Nations had…